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The Role of Minor Pilins in Assembly and Function of the Competence Pilus of Streptococcus pneumoniae
The remarkable genomic plasticity of Streptococcus pneumoniae largely depends on its ability to undergo natural genetic transformation. To take up extracellular DNA, S. pneumoniae assembles competence pili composed of the major pilin ComGC. In addition to ComGC, four minor pilins ComGD, E, F, and G...
Autores principales: | , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8727766/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35004361 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fcimb.2021.808601 |
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author | Oliveira, Vitor Aschtgen, Marie-Stephanie van Erp, Anke Henriques-Normark, Birgitta Muschiol, Sandra |
author_facet | Oliveira, Vitor Aschtgen, Marie-Stephanie van Erp, Anke Henriques-Normark, Birgitta Muschiol, Sandra |
author_sort | Oliveira, Vitor |
collection | PubMed |
description | The remarkable genomic plasticity of Streptococcus pneumoniae largely depends on its ability to undergo natural genetic transformation. To take up extracellular DNA, S. pneumoniae assembles competence pili composed of the major pilin ComGC. In addition to ComGC, four minor pilins ComGD, E, F, and G are expressed during bacterial competence, but their role in pilus biogenesis and transformation is unknown. Here, using a combination of protein-protein interaction assays we show that all four proteins can directly interact with each other. Pneumococcal ComGG stabilizes the minor pilin ComGD and ComGF and can interact with and stabilize the major pilin ComGC, thus, deletion of ComGG abolishes competence pilus assembly. We further demonstrate that minor pilins are present in sheared pili fractions and find ComGF to be incorporated along the competence pilus by immunofluorescence and electron microscopy. Finally, mutants of the invariant Glu5 residue (E5), ComGD(E5A) or ComGE(E5A), but not ComGF(E5A), were severely impaired in pilus formation and function. Together, our results suggest that ComGG, lacking E5, is essential for competence pilus assembly and function, and plays a central role in connecting the pneumococcal minor pilins to ComGC. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8727766 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-87277662022-01-06 The Role of Minor Pilins in Assembly and Function of the Competence Pilus of Streptococcus pneumoniae Oliveira, Vitor Aschtgen, Marie-Stephanie van Erp, Anke Henriques-Normark, Birgitta Muschiol, Sandra Front Cell Infect Microbiol Cellular and Infection Microbiology The remarkable genomic plasticity of Streptococcus pneumoniae largely depends on its ability to undergo natural genetic transformation. To take up extracellular DNA, S. pneumoniae assembles competence pili composed of the major pilin ComGC. In addition to ComGC, four minor pilins ComGD, E, F, and G are expressed during bacterial competence, but their role in pilus biogenesis and transformation is unknown. Here, using a combination of protein-protein interaction assays we show that all four proteins can directly interact with each other. Pneumococcal ComGG stabilizes the minor pilin ComGD and ComGF and can interact with and stabilize the major pilin ComGC, thus, deletion of ComGG abolishes competence pilus assembly. We further demonstrate that minor pilins are present in sheared pili fractions and find ComGF to be incorporated along the competence pilus by immunofluorescence and electron microscopy. Finally, mutants of the invariant Glu5 residue (E5), ComGD(E5A) or ComGE(E5A), but not ComGF(E5A), were severely impaired in pilus formation and function. Together, our results suggest that ComGG, lacking E5, is essential for competence pilus assembly and function, and plays a central role in connecting the pneumococcal minor pilins to ComGC. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-12-22 /pmc/articles/PMC8727766/ /pubmed/35004361 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fcimb.2021.808601 Text en Copyright © 2021 Oliveira, Aschtgen, van Erp, Henriques-Normark and Muschiol https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
spellingShingle | Cellular and Infection Microbiology Oliveira, Vitor Aschtgen, Marie-Stephanie van Erp, Anke Henriques-Normark, Birgitta Muschiol, Sandra The Role of Minor Pilins in Assembly and Function of the Competence Pilus of Streptococcus pneumoniae |
title | The Role of Minor Pilins in Assembly and Function of the Competence Pilus of Streptococcus pneumoniae
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title_full | The Role of Minor Pilins in Assembly and Function of the Competence Pilus of Streptococcus pneumoniae
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title_fullStr | The Role of Minor Pilins in Assembly and Function of the Competence Pilus of Streptococcus pneumoniae
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title_full_unstemmed | The Role of Minor Pilins in Assembly and Function of the Competence Pilus of Streptococcus pneumoniae
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title_short | The Role of Minor Pilins in Assembly and Function of the Competence Pilus of Streptococcus pneumoniae
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title_sort | role of minor pilins in assembly and function of the competence pilus of streptococcus pneumoniae |
topic | Cellular and Infection Microbiology |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8727766/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35004361 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fcimb.2021.808601 |
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